A compensation system should be established to encourage hospitals to save the lives of emergency patients who cannot afford the care, says an editorial in China Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

In the national work meeting last week, the Ministry of Health stressed that hospitals should enforce the first-visit responsibility system in treating emergency patients. Refusing to save endangered patients should be strictly forbidden. Hospitals and doctors should insist on the emergency room principle of treat first and pay later.

Medical workers should shoulder the noble responsibility of healing the wounded and saving the dying. Hospitals must not give up their social responsibility for profit making.

Public opinion advocates that hospitals must not refuse patients who cannot afford treatment. But it is not rare to see hospitals rejecting such patients.

To solve the problem, the government should do more than just stress patients' rights.

Last year, the Beijing municipal government provided that it would pay for emergency treatment of vagrant patients. This measure, though not enough to heighten medical ethics, is more effective in ensuring patents' interests.

At present hospitals are economic bodies responsible for their own profits or losses. Providing free treatment will certainly be a burden for hospitals and affect their development.

It is the responsibility of hospitals to respect the rights of patients but it is more the job of the government. The government should not only stress the importance of saving patients' lives but also relieve hospitals of their financial concerns.

Only by building a compensation system can the bottleneck be broken.

(China Daily April 4, 2007)